Building a Great Team

Posted on August 31, 2017

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."

- Babe Ruth

An organization with high performance teams will go further, faster. And yet, building a productive, cohesive team out of a group of individuals can be a challenge. After all, teams are nothing more than a collection of people from very different backgrounds, with different personalities, and different communication styles thrown together in order to accomplish difficult tasks.

So, how do you build a great team?

Here are a few helpful first steps:

1. Don’t rely on hunches or intuition to figure out how to work together. Take the time on the front end to consider the differences among the team. Be intentional about learning each other’s preferred styles. Ask questions. Open the line of communication.

2. Build trust. Invest yourself in the lives of others. What does this mean? Help others achieve their goals and objectives. Find out what motivates them to get out of bed each morning. What do they want out of life?

3. Don’t treat people the way you want to be treated; treat them the way they want to be treated.

While it takes time to develop a high performance team, these steps can accelerate the process and put you and your teammates on the path to success.

Start Today

Posted on July 31, 2017

“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.”

-Ralph Marston

One of the greatest educational experiences in my life was a job I had in college loading and unloading forty-foot trailers during the summer months. It was hot, physically demanding, and often hazardous, but the pay was good; I was able to earn enough in twelve weeks to support myself for the entire school year.

I was very grateful for the job, but one thing became crystal clear to me: it would never bring me a sense of fulfilment. While it certainly met my financial needs, it was not in alignment with my major interests-my motivational drivers.

How are you spending your time-personally and professionally? Are you involved in tasks that bring a sense of purpose and meaning to your life? Are you doing what you love to do or simply “getting by”?

Life is too short and time too precious to spend performing tasks that are not personally fulfilling. Don’t waste time . . . start building today the life you want tomorrow.

Active Listening

Posted on June 30, 2017

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
-Stephen R. Covey

How are your listening skills? For many of us, they could use some work. Too often we spend entire conversations focused on our side of things, thinking about what we’ll say next. Our attention isn’t necessarily on the speaker, but on our own thoughts, feelings, or opinions. Without realizing it, our communication with others suffers because we are not paying proper attention. And if our communication with others is not effective, our work, our relationships, and our ability to bring out the best in others suffers.

One of the most powerful tools to improve communication is active listening:

Active listening is not just hearing someone’s words, but being engaged in the conversation. It requires concentration. This kind of listening means being focused and fully present in the moment.

Active listening is paying attention to what is being said, as well as to what is not being said. Nonverbal behaviors such as posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact (or lack thereof) often convey a person’s thoughts or feelings more accurately than their actual words.
Active listening not only enables the listener to take in information from others more effectively, but to act on that information more effectively.

Active listening converts simple, everyday interactions with others into opportunities for a deeper level of understanding; and that's really what we should be striving for . . . listening with the intent of understanding, not simply replying.

How Do I Help Others Be Their Best?

Posted on May 31, 2017

“You feel alive to the degree you feel you can help others."
-John Travolta

Our days are filled with mechanical devices that ‘speak’ to us. The refrigerator will let us know when it needs a new water filter. The car will tell us it’s time for an oil change. The printer will demand new ink. The computer will walk us through the installation of new programs.

Our devices give us crisp, clear, and correct bits of information that not only keeps things running smoothly and efficiently, but also keeps things working at its best. Wouldn’t it be nice if the people we interact with everyday provided us with the same level of information?

Effective communication is an essential part of bringing out the best in others.

Discovery Questions

Any time spent thinking about and discussing ways to improve interaction between two people is time well invested. Discovery questions, however, can be powerful tools to gain insight and understanding into the specific needs of others in order to bring out their best.

Here are a few brief examples:

Work Preferences

What are your preferred approaches to how you do your work?
Is there anything you wish others would start doing to help you perform your work?

Communication Preferences

How do you prefer others to talk to you?
What style of communication from others makes you uncomfortable?
What style of communication from others brings out your best?

Biggest Mistakes

What kind of interactions (verbal or nonverbal) make you uncomfortable?
What is your preferred work style?
What kind of work situations do you find stressful?

Incentives

What actions, events, or rewards incentivize you?
What actions, events, or rewards disincentivize you?
What incentives you to go to work each day?

Motivation

What makes you feel good about yourself and what you do?
What propels you towards your goals?

It is only when you truly understand the needs and drivers of others that you can begin to help bring out their best. Communication is the key to that understanding.